Pitching

Starter Kyle Lohse tight-roped through 5.2 innings of work, allowing seven hits and five walks, but just one run before back-to-back two-out singles in the sixth chased him.

Flame-throwing Trevor Rosenthal came on to get the final out of the inning, inducing a groundout from Angel Pagan to bring the Giants' stranded runners total to 10 at that point in the contest.

Edward Mujica came in for his usual seventh-inning role, but was hit hard and allowed a single off the wall to Pablo Sandoval and a scalded single through the left side to Buster Posey, before giving way to Mitchell Boggs with just one out in the inning.

Boggs came through huge, striking out both Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt to get the Cardinals out of the jam. With Boggs unable to come back out after the delay, the team asked closer Jason Motte to record his first two-inning save of the season.

Motte got through a 1-2-3 eighth inning with just nine pitches, and went on to retire all six batters he faced on 19 pitches for his first two-inning save of the season.

Giants: B+

Aside from the Matt Carpenter home run in the third, Matt Cain was nearly untouchable through his first six innings of work, allowing just four hits and settling in nicely over the middle innings.

He ran into trouble in the seventh inning, though, as he loaded the bases with just one out. An RBI groundout from Shane Robinson marked the end of his night, as he gave way to Javier Lopez just before a rain delay went into effect.

Lopez was able to escape further damage after the delay, striking out John Jay to end the threat and keeping the score where it was heading into the eighth inning.

Left-hander Jose Mijares took the ball to open the eighth, striking out Carpenter, then getting Matt Holliday to ground out before a walk to Adron Chambers brought the hook in favor of George Kontos.

The right-hander got Yadier Molina to ground out to end the inning and keep the score 3-1 heading into the Giant's' final at-bats.

Offense

Another unexpected hero stepped forward for the Cardinals, as Matt Carpenter delivered the big blow with a two-run shot in the bottom of the third inning.

Carpenter was only in the lineup because Carlos Beltran went down with a strained knee trying to leg out a a ground ball during his first-inning at bat. He is currently day-to-day.

From there, the Cardinals were more or less shut down by Cain until the seventh, when they loaded the bases with one out and managed to squeak across a run on an RBI groundout from double-switch entry Shane Robinson. However, that was all they got, as they entered the late innings with a 3-1 cushion that would wind up being the final score.

David Freese had a strong game, going 2-for-3 with a double and scoring on the Robinson groundout. For the most part, though, the Cardinals offense was held in check—they just managed to capitalize on the few opportunities they had.

Giants: F

Stranding 11 runners and scoring just one run on nine hits and five walks pretty much tells the story for the Giants.

Marco Scutaro went 2-for-5 with a double in his return to the lineup, and Pablo Sandoval went 2-for-5 and drove in the team's only run with an RBI groundout in the third inning. Brandon Crawford added a 2-for-3 performance out of the eight hole.

The team has to get something from guys like Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt if they want to bounce back in this series.